In this first stage, the catalogue focuses on the modern and contemporary architecture designed and built between 1832 –year of construction of the first industrial chimney in Barcelona that we establish as the beginning of modernity– until today.
The project is born to make the architecture more accessible both to professionals and to the citizens through a website that is going to be updated and extended. Contemporary works of greater general interest will be incorporated, always with a necessary historical perspective, while gradually adding works from our past, with the ambitious objective of understanding a greater documented period.
The collection feeds from multiple sources, mainly from the generosity of architectural and photographic studios, as well as the large amount of excellent historical and reference editorial projects, such as architectural guides, magazines, monographs and other publications. It also takes into consideration all the reference sources from the various branches and associated entities with the COAC and other collaborating entities related to the architectural and design fields, in its maximum spectrum.
Special mention should be made of the incorporation of vast documentation from the COAC Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.
The rigour and criteria for selection of the works has been stablished by a Documental Commission, formed by the COAC’s Culture Spokesperson, the director of the COAC Historical Archive, the directors of the COAC Digital Archive, and professionals and other external experts from all the territorial sections that look after to offer a transversal view of the current and past architectural landscape around the territory.
The determination of this project is to become the largest digital collection about Catalan architecture; a key tool of exemplar information and documentation about architecture, which turns into a local and international referent, for the way to explain and show the architectural heritage of a territory.
We kindly invite you to help us improve the dissemination of Catalan architecture through this space. Here you can propose works and provide or amend information on authors, photographers and their work, along with adding comments. The Documentary Commission will analyze all data. Please do only fill in the fields you deem necessary to add or amend the information.
The Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya is one of the most important documentation centers in Europe, which houses the professional collections of more than 180 architects whose work is fundamental to understanding the history of Catalan architecture. By filling this form, you can request digital copies of the documents for which the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya manages the exploitation of the author's rights, as well as those in the public domain. Once the application has been made, the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya will send you an approximate budget, which varies in terms of each use and purpose.
Located in the Ciutat Vella district, this terraced apartment building stands within the block bounded by Carrer de l’Hospital (from which the main entrance is accessed), Carrer d’en Robador, Carrer de Sant Rafael and Rambla del Raval. The building also contains the entrance to Passatge de Bernardí Martorell, which connects Carrer de l’Hospital with Carrer de Sant Rafael.
The property, divided by the passageway, comprises a building made up of two sections joined by means of an arch over which construction has also taken place. Even so, the vertical structure of the principal façade presents a compact appearance and consists of a ground floor, three upper floors, an attic and a second attic resulting from a later 20th century addition.
The ground floor, finished in Montjuïc stone, is arranged with four segmental arches giving access to shops and a central semicircular arch leading into the passage, where the building’s vestibule is located. This arch stands out for being framed by two fluted Doric semi-columns supporting an entablature composed of triglyphs and metopes. This Neoclassical work, which some authors have mistakenly dated to the sixteenth century, was formerly crowned by two seated sculptures of the gods Mars and Apollo, now lost.
The openings, aligned along vertical axes, decrease in height on the upper floors and are framed by moulded stone jambs and lintels with flat bands. The balconies, which project progressively less on the higher levels and are supported by stone volute-shaped corbels with rounded corners, are enclosed by cast-iron railings featuring rich Neo-Gothic tracery ornament.
The walls are rendered in stucco which, through varied polychromy, imitates ashlar blocks of white marble veined with grey. The most distinctive feature of this building, however, is its profuse ornamentation of terracotta relief appliqués inserted in vertical stucco panels between the balconies. This type of decoration, very characteristic of Barcelona architecture in the 1840s and 1850s, lends considerable plasticity to the city’s façades.
The terracottas on this building take the form of intertwined vegetal candelabra in ascending compositions, incorporating putti, lion heads, faun-shaped pilasters, vases and acanthus leaves. The overdoors of the principal-floor balconies are also adorned with terracotta reliefs, in this case depicting allegories of the textile industry through factory scenes featuring children.
The attic, separated from the floors below by a moulded cornice that serves as the base for the parapet balconies opening onto the street, is likewise decorated with terracotta reliefs in the form of floral garlands. The façade is crowned by a second attic added during the first half of the twentieth century, with its parapet balconies set upon the cornice that formerly marked the line of the roof slab.
